Church on Sunday Morning

Passing the "Baton" to the next generation

After the missionary invitation on Friday night, The leadership at the Lae Crusade had a candlelight ceremony to represent passing the Baton to the next generation. This really pulled the young people into the job of reaching the world for Jesus. I was glad I was there.

Children

They are everywhere, they are amused by Americans, and they are sweet. These children were laughing at my singing a chorus to them. Up in the highlands they were greatly amused by my false teeth. I would ask them if they could pull their teeth out. When they would say no, then I would pull my false teeth out. They would run then come back for more.

A New Believer-A New Bible

This young man at Lae prayed to receive Christ for the first time. After we counseled and prayed, he told me that he did not have a Bible. I gave him mine, and then told him if he would bring it back the next night, I would have a new one for him. This picture is the next night, when he came back. Notice the determined look in his eyes. I was moved by this new believer. I hope you are too.

More people

Below is Brother Kita, a pastor, and myself. He was very short, but everyone said he could hike a hundred kilometrers to get to a church. Above is a schoolroom where I preached one day. This room was viewed through a window from the room in which I was speaking. It too was full and all the window space filled and open doorways used to get near enough to hear. Quite a privledge.

Important people

Gerald Bustin was the Evangelist for the crusade. This was celebrating 50 years of missionary work in PNG. Next to him is Thomas Gabriel. Mr. Gabriel is from a place called Manus Island, just off the main island of PNG. He used to live in Lae while we worked there in the '90's. He often came over with two or three bags of groceries. One day he brought over a huge fish he had bought at the seafood market. I think Thomas was sick, and that is why he had gone back to his island. But he flew over to come to the crusade. I was so blessed by that. At the top is a picture of our "house keeper" while we were in PNG during the 90's. The church hired her so that she could put one of her children in the Christian School. She became a great friend. One month before we left PNG for the states, she had another child. She named him Robert in honor of me. This is a picture of that Robert, who was an infant then. What a lovely child he was. I was honored that he made me a bag with seashells, and touched that the conection in my heart, seemed to be in his too. The land of Papua New Guinea is beautiful. The greatest resourse they have however, is no doubt, their people.

Coming home to Lae

When we left Lae in 1994, a group from the church had come to see us off, and to help us with the kids, luggage etc. Now coming back in 2008, I knew there was going to be a team waiting to receive us. They told Gerald Bustin that they were going to receive us "Prophetically". Though we did not know exactly what that meant, we were about to find out. These crusades were a celebration of 50 years of Missionary work by Gerald. They met us with Leis to put around our necks, flags flying and two teams of school children with tamborines and white gloves dancing to the tune of "These are the days of Elijah". I was overcome with emotion as one of the men who greeted us was a former student of Ruth and I, now pastor of a church. They had a prophetic prayer of repentenance for Lae and the province. Then we went into the vip lounge, where a lady symbolically washed our feet. The whole thing was very moving, dedicated to the Lord Jesus, and a fitting start to a Gospel Crusade. Even the 40 minute trip to the city was planned out, so as to get maximum advertisement of the crusade and awaken interest as to what was happening.